March 30, 2018

Issue No. 381 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests you buy this gorgeous children’s book about mistake-making—and change your culture in one quick read. Really! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and on this page, check out my Top 10 Book Recommendations of 2017, and my Book-of-the-Year pick.

The Book of Mistakes

At first, I thought The Book of Mistakes was a biography of my life because I’ve made my fair share of mistakes. Whopper mistakes!

Example: At a robust planning session years ago in Colorado Springs, the idea team had brainstormed over 100 workshop titles and presenters for a regional conference. Scribbled flipchart pages lined the walls of our meeting room—so we called it a day and went out for dinner.

The next morning—gulp! Our flipchart notes were missing-in-action. Bare wells greeted our shocked team. I had failed to delegate the note-taking chore. Those were our only notes.

But amazingly, that well-managed hotel staff sprang into action—and an hour later, the general manager burst into our meeting room with a dozen flipchart pages. “I found them in the dumpster,”he shouted!

“But the flipchart pages are hardly even wrinkled,” a team member questioned.

“I know,” the GM smiled, “we just ironed them.”

LOL! Thus one of my favorite management axioms was birthed that morning: “It’s not if you make mistakes (you will)…it’s how you recover from your mistakes that differentiate leaders from losers.”

So when The Book of Mistakes, by first-time author/illustrator Corinna Luyken, landed on The Wall Street Journal business book bestseller list last month, I was intrigued and immediately ordered the book.

It’s not what you’d expect—it’s better. This gorgeously-illustrated coffee table-perfect children’s book is big on white space, and short on pages (just 56). And this caution—display it on the coffee table in your reception area and someone will “borrow” it within an hour. (Better buy two!)

I’m guessing millennial team members in the coolest companies in North America are using The Book of Mistakes in team-building exercises, at professional development days, and perhaps in the boardroom—as department heads and CEOs are inspiring the crew with the power and the efficacy of mistake-making.

My gut: our organizational cultures are way too timid about the risky business of mistake-making. But the business literature preaches the opposite:

Johnson & Johnson’s Robert Wood "General" Johnson II proclaimed, “If I wasn’t making mistakes, I wasn’t making decisions.” Tom Peters highlights another mistake-tolerant company that fired a cannon to celebrate (not condemn) whopper mistakes. Read more - In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

And Jim Collins reminded us about “First Bullets, Then Cannonballs.” He says that discipline and creativity will push you to test, test, test—with low risk bullets, then re-calibrate, fire another low risk bullet, more re-calibration—then when the empirical side of creativity has honed in on the target—let the cannonball rip! Collins has six bullet points (sorry) on “The Dangerous Lure of Uncalibrated Cannonballs.” Brilliant. Read more: Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen.

And speaking of little bets, giving freedom for mistake-making is a 180 plunge from what the profs taught us. Peter Sims quotes Sir Ken Robinson, “We are educating people out of their creativity.” Most management approaches are all about reducing errors and risk—not giving license to having a good whack at a half-baked idea. “Goodness, this is God’s money we’re wasting!” Read more: Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries, by Peter Sims.

Left to right: Anderson, Zuzana, and Emelia PearsonThis week I asked our triplet grandchildren (9th grade, 15-years-old) about their thoughts on mistake-making (the good, the bad, and the ugly!). Their thoughts (according to birth-order, “as it should be,” says Emelia):

Emelia: “This is funny! I was walking down the paper towel aisle at our grocery store, but I didn’t see a big puddle of water. Bang! I slipped and fell! Imagine—a puddle of water in the paper towel aisle! I don’t know how the store recovered from that mistake, but I recovered by just laughing about it. How ironic!”

Zuzana: “Just last Sunday at youth group, I was asked to create a large graphic on butcher paper for our leader’s talk. Based on the theme, I included a large compass with North, South, East, and West headings. My mistake: I mixed up East and West! Thankfully, the speaker made a joke on himself about being ‘directionally challenged’ and didn’t embarrass me.”

Anderson: “Grandpa John, I remember the story from Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck (which you reviewed). The Walkman radio and cassette player started out as a mistake. Sony engineers tried to create a small, portable stereo tape recorder. It’s only when Masura Ibuka, honorary chairman of Sony, combined a new concept with the device—headphones—and dropped the recording idea, that the Walkman became Sony’s bestselling electronic product of all time! And chocolate chip cookies, popsicles, raisins and ice cream cones were all invented by mistake. Honest! Google it, Grandpa!”

So…order The Book of Mistakes and you’ll be mega-phoning to your team that you want to celebrate both mistakes and great recoveries from mistakes. Unleash the creativity and watch for dumpster divers near you as you inspire your people and your family members to take thoughtful risks.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as a sponsor at no charge.

March 15, 2018

Issue No. 380 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests that “SMART Goals” are not enough—and it ticked me off! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and on this page, check out my Top 10 Book Recommendations of 2017, and my Book-of-the-Year pick.

S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals

Alignment is a big deal for me, whether reading or recommending books. To avoid Management by Bestseller Syndrome, I look for books, blogs, articles, and podcasts that are in alignment with my core view of leadership and management.

Michael Hyatt says that “great goals check seven boxes.” I’ve preached “S.M.A.R.T. Goals” for years, so how did I feel about this bestselling author’s two-upmanship? OK, I thought, lay out your case for S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals.

My first thought: If S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals are smarter than S.M.A.R.T. Goals, then why not S.M.A.R.T.Y.P.A.N.T.S. Goals? (Then I prayed and confessed to having an arrogant spirit. Then I read Chapter 7: really good stuff!) Feel free to define your own “smart” words at this acronym finder website.

You, or someone on your team or in your family, will love this book—and for many, it could be a career-altering holy fork-in-the-road experience. The quotable PowerPoint-worthy lines ooze off the page:

• “Goals poorly formulated are goals easily forgotten.”• “Dragging the worst of the past into the best of the future is another reason goals fail.”• “Fitness centers sell yearlong contracts knowing the majority of customers won’t come for more than a few weeks. NPR covered one chain with 6,500 members per location and only room for 300 at a time.”• The chart on page 37 contrasting “Scarcity Thinkers” with “Abundance Thinkers” is revealing. The latter “welcome competition, believing it makes the pie bigger and them better.”• “…if you already have everything you need to achieve your goal, then your goal’s probably too small.”• “Resources are never the main challenge in achieving our goals.”

I appreciate authors who declare their assumptions, because Donald Rumsfeld reminds us that “It is possible to proceed perfectly logically from an inaccurate premise to an inaccurate and unfortunate conclusion.”Hyatt lists five assumptions, and begins with “real life is multi-faceted”—his circle of 10 interrelated domains: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, marital, parental, social, vocational, avocational, and financial.

“The only people with no hope are those with no regrets,” says Hyatt. Important principles are punctuated with ample doses of LOL one-liners, like the section on “There’s No Autocorrect for Tattoo Needles,” and this actual tattoo:

“REGRET NOHING.”

More good stuff—and alignment:• “An experience is not complete until it is remembered.” (Wow…this aligns perfectly with my 2017 book-of-the-year, The Power of Moments.)• “The Opportunity Principle” (based on research) fits well with my recent review of Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter. Hyatt contrasts roadblocks with road signs. Great metaphors.• “…the mere act of writing one’s goals boosted achievement by 42 percent.” (For more, see my 2016 book-of-the-year, The One Thing.)• A written goal “…enables you to see—and celebrate—your progress.” More alignment with my Hoopla! Bucket.• And for some personality types, why “Eat That Frog” may not be the best advice.

If you’re a March Madness fan—order the book today, and read pages 89-90 to your team at work or home.Hyatt shares a Coach K secret how Duke University’s Mike Krzyzewski leveraged the power of gratitude to inspire the Duke basketball team to win the 2015 NCAA Tournament Championship Game. You will customize his creative idea for your own team.

A few more:• Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is only with gratitude that life becomes richer,”Hyatt journals his gratitude every day. • Explaining his "LEAP Principle" (Lean, Engage, Activate, Pounce), Hyatt quotes Peter Thiel on unrealized aspirations about the future: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters."• “It may sound simplistic, but I find it’s best to use a strong verb to prompt the action you want to take.” (Examples: fun, finish, or eliminate.”)

Finally—my favorite and most practical take-aways:• The dramatic difference between achievement goals and habit goals.• 10 very practical pages of sample goal templates (pages 237-246)• Myth-buster: you can perfect new habits in 21 days (research says it's 66 days).• The calendar chain concept. I’ve started using it.• “We share our goals, but not with everyone.”• Brilliant: use Activation Triggers.(Example: “Program the lights in my office to turn off automatically at 6:00 p.m. so I follow through on my goal of quitting work by 6:00 p.m.”)

The Billy Graham MomentInsights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

When Billy Graham arrived home on Feb. 21, 2018, the media coverage was unprecedented—and still is. (See Time magazine.)

What a great time to talk with your team and your family about faith, goals, impact, influence, and eternity.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (number three in the series) opens in theaters nationwide on March 30 (Good Friday). That’s a great opportunity to view the film as a group and begin some meaningful conversations about life’s biggest decision. Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s wisdom: “It is possible to proceed perfectly logically from an inaccurate premise to an inaccurate and unfortunate conclusion.”

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as a sponsor at no charge.